Coming up for the 2012-13 season at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center

∎ Oct. 20, 8 p.m., Concert Hall — Jazz legends Chick Corea and Gary Burton will perform material from their new album, “Hot House,” which offers the longtime duo’s take on songs by a range of composers, from Kurt Weill and Antonio Carlos to Thelonius Monk and Paul McCartney.

Corea, an acclaimed jazz pianist, and Burton, a celebrated vibraphone player, have performed together for 40 years but recorded less frequently. That makes “Hot House” highly welcome, one critic said earlier this year, because “any time Corea enters the studio with Burton is worthy of celebration.”

The duo will be joined onstage by the Harlem String Quartet for some of the new songs.

Tickets range from $15 to $55, and part of the purchase price will go in part to the FAC’s Global Performance Program, which funds K-12 student shows. There will also be pre- and post-show parties on the FAC plaza with appetizers, live entertainment and a cash bar, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

∎ Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m., Concert Hall — The Warsaw Philharmonic, led by Antoni Wit, will be joined by 27-year-old Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, who in 2010 won first place at the 16th International Frédéric Chopin Competition in Warsaw — the first woman to win the competition in 45 years.

∎ Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m., Concert Hall — The National Circus of the People’s Republic of China, one of the oldest circus groups in China, will bring its unique acts to the FAC. Its “Cirque Chinois” show includes the Great Teeterboard, Grand Flying Trapeze, Group Contortion and other acts celebrated for their “extraordinary acrobatic grace,” as one reviewer puts it.

Tickets range from $10 to $40. Take part in a Moon Festival celebration and watch a martial arts demonstration in the FAC lobby at 6:30 p.m.

∎ Dec. 1, 8 p.m., Concert Hall — One of Canada’s most acclaimed musical performers, Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster, will offer a “musical sleigh ride” through a Nova Scotia Christmas season with a wide range of Celtic melodies and holiday carols. MacMaster has performed with musicians as varied as the Chieftains, Faith Hill and Yo-Yo Ma and recorded 10 albums, winning multiple Canadian music awards.

Tickets range from $10 to $40. Audience members are invited to bring nonperishable food items to donate to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, or to make an online donation at www.foodbankwma.org.

Chinese circus performers, a leading Polish symphony orchestra, jazz greats Chick Corea and Gary Burton, and a cutting-edge New York theater company — all this and more is on tap as the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst begins another season. Tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall, in the kick-off event of the FAC’s 2012-13 …